


Middle Management

by laughingalonewithducks



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Gen, i can't believe how long rhys and vaughn got away with this shit, white-collar crimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 05:04:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5815303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laughingalonewithducks/pseuds/laughingalonewithducks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You can't just steal ten million dollars (and your boss' car) and not expect anyone to notice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Middle Management

The lackey stood just inside the door and coughed politely.

It was the kind of dry, fake cough that said ‘please acknowledge me’ and, as such, Jacki completely ignored it.

She shuffled a few things around on her desk, signed a few more papers while she was at it, and then eventually pasted a welcoming expression on her face, looked up and said, “Is there a problem?”

“Er,” the lackey said, shifting awkwardly. “Well.”

Right. There was _always_ some sort of problem. Working in Financial wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

Jacki made encouraging noises at the lackey until it stopped fidgeting and started talking.

(This lackey was new, and Jacki hadn’t bothered to learn its name yet. New lackeys had a sixty percent chance of transferral and a ninety percent chance of death-by-airlock, and learning any of their names was generally not worth the effort until the six-month mark.)

“We have, uh, reason to believe that, uh-” the lackey paused “-that someone has been embezzling from the company funds.”

Jacki manfully resisted the urge to sigh. Even in a company as corrupt as Hyperion, embezzling was _severely_ frowned upon, and every time the higher-ups got wind of it they started a witchhunt that usually culminated in several thousand dollars worth of damage and at least eight new bodies in the ring of human debris that circled Helios.

“Who is it?”

“Well, er, we think it was several someones. I mean, we know there was two of them, but there might have been more? We’re still, uh, unsure.”

“Who. _Is_. It.”

The lackey snapped to attention. “Sorry, Miss Tháng. Names are Rhys and Vaughn, average middlemen. We don’t know the name of the third person. If there actually _is_ a third person, because I’m fairly sure Tom is just talking out his ass again-”

Jacki stared at the lackey. “Bullshit,” she said flatly. “I know Rhys. The man’s an overgrown puppy.”

“Vaughn works in Accounting, it’s possible he could’ve masterminded-”

“Vaughn is a slightly less overgrown puppy. They’re being framed.”

The lackey cleared its throat uncomfortably. “I’m sorry, miss, but, well, they don’t seem to think that.”

“What?”

“Three hours ago, they stole ten million dollars and someone’s car and took them both to Pandora.”

Jacki once again manfully resisted the urge to sigh. And lost.

“Look,” she said, “dig through their accounts, expenditures, everything. Maybe they were being... blackmailed, or something. Whatever. Just get me something I can use to smooth this all over before someone up top gets it in their head to throw a few more people out the airlock.”

The lackey nodded respectfully. “At once, miss,” it said, backing out the doorway. “At once.”

***

The lackey stood just inside the door.

Jacki waited for it to cough politely to get her attention, wondering which lackey it was this time. It looked familiar, but then again, so did all the lackeys. She thought it might be the one with the weird fixation on feathers.

The lackey coughed politely, and she raised an eyebrow at it.

“Miss Tháng,” it began, “we investigated the two embezzlers’ activities, like you requested-”

Oh, right, it was _that_ lackey. The one with the feather fetish had been shot out of an airlock three days ago.

“-and it seems that, er, they’ve been embezzling company funds for years. Nothing big, just little bits here and there. Nothing that we'd notice unless we really looked into it.”

Jacki’s other eyebrow shot up to join its twin. “You’re joking.”

The lackey looked offended. “ _Never_ , miss.”

“Right, well...” Jacki sighed for the second time in as many days. “You’ll have to take this to the higher-ups.”

“...Miss?”

“There’s nothing I can do to smooth this over. Take it to the supervisor, and go get your financials in order. Trust me, you _don’t_ want to get caught with a suspicious record when this goes down.”

“I... yes, miss.” The lackey left, looking apprehensive.

Jacki rested her head in her hands and considered taking a leaf out of Rhys and Vaughn's book and running away to Pandora. The prospect was more tempting than it really should have been.

**Author's Note:**

> another fandom, another set of drabbles and unfinished fics. you guys must hate me.  
> or at least you will when i tell you that pretty much everything unfinished on my page is, for all intents and purposes, abandoned until further notice.  
> except the marvel fics. those are just abandoned. fuck marvel.


End file.
